Wolf Tower
Author: Tanith Lee
Series: Claidi Journals (#1)
Publisher: Firebird
How Received: bought
When a stranger is captured by the Guards of the House and Garden where she has worked all her life as a slave and maid, sixteen-year-old Claidi helps him escape and sets out with him to journey to his home city through the dangerous Waste.
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This was one of those books that was on sale online for a dollar or two, and I picked it up, because why not? It was a high fantasy. Heroine runs off to create a better life. Sounded like I could like it.
I was wrong.
It's not that Wolf Tower is all terrible; there's a reason I kept reading until the end of the book. There's a handful of side characters that I actually enjoyed. The world that Claidi lives in actually interests me -- I liked learning about it.
But Claidi, Claidi, Claidi.
Now, I know Claidi hasn't seen much of the world. Slave her whole life, whatever. But the minute she escaped was when I stopped liking her, not when I started!
In the first chapter, when she's trapped as a slave, she's annoyed with the world, doesn't trust anybody. She's fascinated by the outsider -- different appearance, perhaps a way out of her life -- and tries to protect the other slaves around her from getting hurt. She's no fragile flower.
But the minute she leaves?
Oh, clearly she's in love with the newcomer! Everybody can be trusted except the people who obviously can't be trusted because the newcomer doesn't like them! Oh, love love love do whatever he wants loyalty yay!
Her and Bella Swann would get along greatly in the "fall-in-love-faster-than-humanly-possible" bit.
But I'll give Bella this -- it took her more than 24 hours, and she didn't entirely trust him at first.
Claidi? Not so much.
Overall Rating & Final Comments: 4/10. Good world-building and a handful of side characters I loved, but Claidi made me want to strangle her, and since we're reading from her point of view, that can't possibly be a good thing.
Have you read the sequels? Does Claidi get better or...?